In the US, when the package delivery company UPS knocks on your door or rings your doorbell and cannot reach you, they leave a delivery attempt notification stuck to your door. An example is shown in the first panel.

This comic hints that the threshold for the UPS delivery person to leave such a notice is unreasonably low. The delivery personnel make only a token effort to deliver the package (which, incidentally, is their only actual job) before posting the yellow delivery notification and unconcernedly driving away to their next delivery.

After missing the delivery, Cueball (who is directly referencing Lord of the Rings) asks the Elves to reforge the sword in order to go on a quest to retrieve his new laptop. In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn (accepting his role as the heir to the king of men) had the sword of Isildur called Narsil reforged (which symbolizes the reuniting of the race of man under one leader). Cueball obviously views the UPS building as a dangerous and impenetrable fortress, and possession of such a sword is the only way to guarantee success in his quest.

Ironically, when the elves come to deliver the new sword, the delivery elf is unable to raise anyone in the house, and simply leaves another delivery notification.

In the title text, Rivendell is one of the home of the elves. The broken shards of Narsil lived in Rivendell with Elrond and his elves. The sorting depot of Rivendell has the same, limited opening hours as the UPS. It is apparent that Cueball will not be getting his laptop in time for his flight.

Discussion

They sometimes don't even knock... I was in the living room, less than ten feet from the front door, when I got a notification in my email that the delivery had failed, while I was sitting there less than ten minutes before. Opened the door and just like Cueball... 'Brown' is a good name for them. --68.200.188.141 02:39, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

When it becomes part of the culture then it is entirely due to the way management is mishandling their service.

I like how in the explanation, it says that deliverymen only make a Token effort to deliver a package. That is a lot like Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings. What a pun! 108.162.216.4 19:21, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

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